


A Journey through the Galar region

by Tengugirl



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M, Self-Indulgent, will add more tags as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22288774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tengugirl/pseuds/Tengugirl
Summary: Blue’s dream was to participate in the Gym challenge, unfortunately you need an endorsement in order to participate. Now, at the age of 18, she finally can fulfill that dream.(The summary sucks, but I've never been good at those. Also,there's going to be postwickshipping, but that will be in a future!And this is mostly a fic of my third playthrough of the game)
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 10





	1. The beginning and a Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I write something like this, so my apologies if there are any grammar mistakes.
> 
> PD: I suck at titles and summaries.

Today is very special day for Blue. Today her dream of participating in the Gym Challenge would come true, and all thanks to Hop and his brother.

Ever since Hop told her that his brother was coming to Postwick to visit the family, she was looking forward to this day. Not only she would finally meet Galar’s unbeatable champion in person, if she could convince him of endorsing her to take the Gym challenge, she could finally fulfill that dream that’s been on her head since she was 11.

That morning she woke up earlier than usual, even her mother was surprised about it. After she had breakfast and made up her bed, she took her phone, sit down on the living room’s couch and started watching Leon’s match. It’s not something she used to do before, but ever since she started hanging out with Hop, he would always make her watch his brother’s matches with him, so eventually she ended up doing the same thing on her own.

Then she heard someone knocking the door, and in less than a second Hop was already in the same room as her.

“Hi Blue!” Hop cheerfully said.

“Hi Hop” Blue said “What are you doing here? I thought you were gonna watch your brother’s match”

“First of all, you know well I _always_ record Lee’s matches, and in second place, I came to get you so you can meet my bro”

“Wait, he’s already here?” Blue asked confused.

“That doesn’t matter. Let’s go! And don’t forget that bag of yours!” and in a matter of seconds Hop left the house.

“That boy is always so impatient” Blue said as she headed to her room and grabbed her blue varsity jacket and knit beret, and her old brown backpack “Ok, time to go”

Now that she was ready, Blue said goodbye to her mother and went outside. She noticed how Hop was standing in the road and surprisingly, waiting patiently for her. So Blue joined him with a smile on her face.

“Wow Blue, that’s one heavy bag you got there…At least is big enough to fit anything, though it’ll surely make you go at the pace of a Slowpoke”

“Well, it’s the only one I have, so it’s not like I had another choice” Blue expressed while trying to hide her annoyance. “Shouldn’t we head off already? I thought you wanted to check out if…” Blue got distracted as her attention went to a Wooloo that was hitting a fence “What does that Wooloo think is doing?”

“It must be trying to take down the fence” Hop pointed out and then tried to get the Pokemon to stop “Now little guy you shouldn’t be doing that. Don’t you know the Slumbering Weald is a dangerous place?”

The fluffy creature stopped what it was doing, it seemed that it got the message.

“Well, now that you got it to stop….”

“Right. We should be leaving to my house”

“How about a race to your place?” Blue suggested and then started running without giving a warning “I bet you can’t beat me!”

“Hey! That’s not fair!” Hop screamed as he started to catch up with Blue.

Obviously, Blue got to Hop’s place first, which clearly made him mad. Anyways, they focused on what they had to do and got inside. It didn’t take that long for Blue to realize that Leon hasn’t yet arrived. But that didn’t stopped Hop from asking his mother.

“Hey mum, hasn’t Lee arrived yet?”

“For heaven’s sake Hop, you’re really impatient” the woman answered, “He hasn’t, but it shouldn’t be long before he arrives to Wedgehurst station” Blue in that moment stepped into the room. “Oh, hello Blue! I didn’t know you were here”

“Hello ma’am” Blue shyly said.

“Well, if Lee is going to be on Wedgehurst we should go and get him. You know he’s pants with directions”

“*sigh* You’re right. Though it’s for the better” Hop’s mom said.

“Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Blue said as she gestured to the door with her head, and both walked out the house. “So, do you want to walk or have another race?” she asked.

“Another race sounds good” he said with a mischievous look and then started running without prior notice “This time you won’t beat me!”

“Hey, no fair!” Blue cried out as she went after him.

* * *

Once the two of them got to Wedgehurst, they noticed a big crowd near the train station.

“Why are there so many people here?” Blue asked quite confused, but when they got closer to have a better look, she got the answer to her question.

Leon has finally arrived.

“Guess that explains the crowd” Blue commented. Due to the many people that were there, Leon didn’t see Hop or Blue, so the boy just started waving his hand in attempt to catch his brother’s attention.

“Lee!” This made Leon look at the back of the crowd.

_“That definitely caught his attention, he’s coming this way” Blue thought to herself._

“But look who we have here! If it isn’t my number one fan!” Leon said as he wiggled Hop’s hair.

“Aw Lee, please stop it” Hop said between laughs, he was really happy to see his brother.

“I’m happy to see you Hopscotch”

Meanwhile Blue was just standing aside, contemplating the man in front of her. She was aware that he was attractive, but seeing him in person, well, let’s just say cameras didn’t do any justice. 

“Oh, and who are you?” Blue was startled by the question, she had been so lost in her own thoughts that forgot about her current situation.

“U-Uh well…” the nerves were getting the best of her.

“Wait! I remember. You must be Blue, am I right?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s me!” she mentally slapped herself and tried her best to control her nerves “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you”

“Well, the pleasure is all mine” suddenly Leon took her hand and placed a kiss on the back. This only made Blue get red as a tomato. “Hop has told me many good things about you, though he didn't mentioned how pretty you are” At this point there was Blue's heart was racing really fast, for a moment she thought she would faint.

“Well, I can say the same thing about you” she responded with a smile on her face, finally recovering of her embarrassment. “He just doesn’t stop saying how amazing you’re, and does that on a daily basis”

This only made Hop whine in embarrassment, though this was no secret for Leon, he knew how much his little brother admired him.

Since it was starting to get late, Leon said goodbye to his fans and raced back to Postwick with Hop, Blue followed them with Leon’s Charizard.

* * *

“Come on Lee! You promised us a present! So out with it already!”

“Wait, he got us a gift?”

“I didn’t told you? Oopsie”

“Ugh, I hate it when you don’t tell me this kind of stuff….So, what did you get us Leon?”

“I know that you got us some Pokémon. Didn’t you?” Hop was already impatient at this point.

“You’re right!” before Leon said anything else, he took out three Poke balls from his pocket “It’s showtime, everyone!” And with that three Pokémon came out to the field.

“The grass-type Pokémon Grookey, the fire-type Pokémon Scorbunny and finally the water-type Pokémon Sobble!”

Blue and Hop watched how the three Pokémon were having fun, this was not going to be an easy decision for them.

“All right! Line up, everyone” quickly the three of them made a line “Now, which one shall you choose?”

“I’m not sure…All of them are so cute!” Blue tried her best to not let out a squeal as she was looking carefully at three Pokémon to figure out who she should choose. “Um…Why don’t you choose first Hop?”

“No way. I already have a Pokémon, it’s only fair that you choose first”

“Dang it” she muttered as she was looking at the floor “Fine…I think I’m gonna go for…” she took a deep breath “Sobble. I’m choosing Sobble” The small water type made a sound of happiness.

“Then I’m gonna take Scorbunny!” Hop exclaimed. The fire bunny happily went to his new trainer “I’m aiming to be the next Champion, so be ready! You and I’ll be doing some serious training!”

“I bet you will Hop. That’s why I brought along these Pokémon for you and Blue. So the two of you can battle and train and grow stronger together…to try to reach me!”

Meanwhile Grookey was just standing all alone in the area, Blue felt bad for the little guy, but then she noticed how Leon got closer to the Pokémon. “And you’ll come with me!” He addressed to the Pokémon “Charizard will show you the ropes. He’s strict, but real strong and kind too!”

This scene made Blue’s heart melt, surely Leon was as kind as Hop said.

“Alright, enough of this trainer nonsense” Hop’s mother said “Dinner’s ready, so, bring along your Pokémon and let’s eat”

They set up everything to have a small barbecue as the sun was setting in the horizon. Hop was talking to his mother, while Wooloo and Scorbunny had fun. Charizard was also having fun with Grookey. And Blue was just getting acquainted with Sobble, though she then started a conversation with Leon, leaving Sobble alone, not like it bothered him, the little guy just went to pond and started swimming.

“It’s so kind of your part that you took Grookey with you” Blue said with her eyes set on Charizard and Grookey, who were getting along.

“Well, I had one space left on my team so, I thought it would be a good idea to include him” he smiled as he said this, and Blue just stared at him.

_“He has such a nice smile” Blue thought as she was just contemplating him again._

“So, Blue, are you going to put a name on Sobble?”

“Uh, what?” this was the second time in the day she was startled all because she was lost in thoughts.

“Well, you know how some trainers like to put names to their Pokémon? I was wondering if you were one of those people”

“Oh, now that you mention it…I do have a name for him” Blue called out Sobble so she could name him “Hey little guy. You know, since you’re gonna be my partner, I wanted to put you a name. I hope you like it!” Sobble only tilted his head in curiosity.

“From now on, your name is going to be Marine. Do you like it?” The small Pokémon just jumped in agreement. He really liked his new name.

“It seems he really likes it” Leon said and turned his sight to Blue “You really are good with Pokémon, Blue. I’m sure you’ll be a great trainer”

Due to this compliment Blue could feel the heat of her body rise to her cheeks, so she looked somewhere else that wasn’t Leon’s face. The man let out a quiet chuckle.

By the time they were done eating, it was already nighttime, so the mother of the two brothers offered her to stay in their house for the night. Blue happily accepted, so she called her mum to tell her about this, she knew how worried she could get when she didn’t know where she was.

Since they didn’t had any sleeping bag for her, she had to sleep in the couch, but Leon interfered and told her she could stay in his room if she wanted, Blue had to say no to it as she had no problem in sleeping in the couch.

She accommodated herself and put over the blanket, before she closed her eyes, she made sure that Marine was fine in her bag, she only noticed how cute it looked while it was sleeping.

Now it was time to get some rest, for tomorrow she had to make an important question to Leon.


	2. Illusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Blue couldn't believe what was in front of her._
> 
> _Her mind must be playing tricks on her. But it wasn't, what she had in front of her was real._
> 
> _It was the same Pokémon she encountered when she was a kid_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really loved writing this.  
> And there's lots of dialogue, so I'm sorry(?)

The next day, Blue had woken up earlier than everyone else in the house, so she went outside to get some fresh air and spend more time with Marine. Sometime later Hop and Leon joined her outside.

“Well, it seems that both of you are getting along with your Pokémon” Leon said.

“Course I have Lee! Blue’s made fast friends with her Sobble too!”

“Then listen up you two! Believe in yourself and your Pokémon! If you trust in one another and carry on battling side by side long enough, then someday…you might even become worthy rivals of me, the unbeatable”

Blue rolled her eyes in amusement, not noticing that Leon had his eyes on her.

“What’re you looking at her for, Lee?! I’m the one who’ll be coming to challenge you!” Hop exclaimed “If you think Blue might be able to challenge you, then I guess she’s my first rival!”

“Rivals, uh?” Blue said, if Hop wanted her as his rival, then she had no problem with that. “If that’s the case, then get yourself ready ‘cause I’m not make things easy for you. After all, I know more about being a trainer and battling”

“Really? How is that possible when you’ve never had your own Pokémon before?” Hop pointed out as he narrowed his eyes.

“Well, if you really think you’re a proper trainer, then why don’t you show me with a battle?” Blue sounded more confident than what she intended, but she believed she was ready for her first Pokémon battle.

“That’s a great idea!“ Leon spoke up “I would like to see how you two handle yourselves in battle against each other”

“All right! Let’s do it!” Blue and Hop said unison, which made them laugh a little bit.

Both trainers took their respective positions in the small battlefield in the courtyard.

“Very well, now that everything is settled, let the battle begin!” Leon swayed his arm as an indicator to start the battle.

Hop sent out his Wooloo while Blue sent out Marine. Despite only having one Pokémon Blue remained confident.

It was kind of hard for the poor Sobble to take down Hop’s Wooloo, but after attacking him for a while, the little guy took it out of the way.

“Not bad for a rookie” Hop began “But don’t think this is over! I’ve got another member on my team now!” and with that he sent out Scorbunny. Now it was the perfect moment to test Marine’s newest attack.

“Ok Marine, try using water gun!” Blue commanded to her partner. The small Sobble performed the attack perfectly, doing in the process some good damage to the Scorbunny.

That didn’t stopped Hop from trying to take it down, though despite his efforts, Scorbunny was not match against a water-type Pokémon, so when Blue ordered to use water gun again, the battle was over.

“You beated my two Pokémon with your one?!” Hop blurted out “And when did that Sobble learned a water-type move in the first place?!”

“We might have done some training before all of you woke up” Blue declared proudly of her decision “And I’m glad that we did that”

“Well, now I know why Lee gave you a Pokémon, too…”

“You too did a great job!” Leon began “I almost wanted to sent out Charizard and be part of the fun!” Blue chuckled at such comment. “And Blue, you’ve got a real promise, so be a good rival to Hop, would you? Push him and make the both of you stronger.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he trains hard enough” Blue reassured “But, do you know what would makes us work harder? Participating on the Gym Challenge”

“Yeah Lee! You gotta let us take on the Gym Challenge!” Hop added “You already saw us battle, so there should be no problem with that!”

“I don’t know Hop…You sure you’re ready for something that big?” Leon asked unsure that his little brother and friend were ready for something like this.

“Come on Leon, we can handle it!” Blue claimed “And if you’re worried about Hop, I can watch him out and make sure he doesn’t do anything reckless”

“Mmm…You know what? Let me think about it” Leon said “But first, you two should get a Pokédex. It is a useful tool for every trainer”

“Then we should head off the Pokémon Lab and get one” Blue said.

“Very well, I’ll let professor know you are coming” Leon added “I’ll be waiting for you two in front of the Lab” and with that Leon made his way to Wedgehurst.

“I should probably go and tell my mum we’re heading out” Blue commented.

“You’re right, I’m coming with you”

Both trainers then headed off to Blue’s house but suddenly they heard something crashing nearby.

“What was that?!” Blue exclaimed.

“I don’t know, but it seems the noise came from the forest’s entrance”

When they got to the place where that sound came from, they were in shock.

“The gate’s open! And the Wooloo that was here is….” Hop then got worried.

“You…You don’t think the Wooloo got into the Slumbering Weald, do you?” Blue was concerned, the Slumbering Weald is out of limits for everyone for a simple reason, it’s a dangerous place.

“Even if we’re not supposed to go in there, we have to save it!” And Hop ran off into the woods.

Blue hesitated for a moment, but she couldn’t let him go alone. “I hope nothing weird happens this time…” After building up some courage, she went inside the forest.

* * *

The Slumbering Weald hasn’t changed that much from the last time she put a foot in there so many years ago, the fog was really dense that you could barely see, still that didn’t make it impossible to navigate through the area.

“Hop! Where are you?!” she called out for him and then she could hear his voice.

“Blue! Over here!” Hop was waving his arm so Blue could find him more easily.

“There you are! Don’t you ever run off like that again without me, ok?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave you behind” he sounded a little bit ashamed “Still, I have no idea where did that Wooloo go off to…”

Blue started to look their surroundings trying to figure out where they should go, but the fog made it difficult to see.

*howling*

“What was that?” Hop asked.

“I don’t know be we should hurry up and find that Wooloo…” And the two headed off deeper into the woods until they reached a point where it was almost impossible to see.

“This is mad… I can’t even see my own hand! Now I see why this place is off-limits…”

“Maybe we should go back…We are already too deep in the forest” Blue said softly, trying to convince Hop to leave. The risk of getting themselves lost keep increasing the deeper they went.

“No way! I’m not leaving without that Wooloo!” Hop protested.

*howling*

“Is that sound again…it’s the howl of a wolf” Blue acknowledged as she was trying to find the source of the sound.

Suddenly a creature appeared in front of them, it came out of nowhere.

“What in the-?!” Hop yelped and jumped backwards as a reflex.

“No…It can’t be…” Blue gasped as she took a better look at the Pokémon that was in front of her. For a second she thought it was her mind playing tricks on her, but it wasn’t. What she had in front of her was real.

It was the same Pokémon she encountered back when she was a kid, the day in which she went into the Slumbering Weald for a reason she can’t explain to this day.

Blue was paralyzed out of the shock, until Hop made her snap out of it. So she instinctively sent out Marine to defend them both of the wild Pokémon.

_“_

_This can’t be possible! This has to be a dream! This can’t be happening!”_ she repeated herself in her mind in an attempt to calm her down but it was no use, still she had to focus and told Marine to use water-gun.

Nothing happened. The attack did nothing. And the blue wolf stood there with its gazed fixed on Blue.

“What! The move had no effect on it?!” Hop exclaimed. How was it possible the move did nothing? Blue, ordered Marine to attack once more, there is no way this thing was invincible.

It did nothing again. And the fog got worse until they were surrounded completely in a white cloud.

“Blue! I can’t see anything! You Ok?!”

“Yeah! I’m fine!” She reassured to Hop and kept telling Marine to attack.

Then she started to feel dizzy, and everything went black as a howl could be heard in the distance.

* * *

_…lue …ke…p_

**“Blue, wake up!”**

Her eyes slowly opened, she felt as if a herd of Dubwools went over her.

“Wha…What happened?” she looked around for a moment and then moved her gaze to Hop who was crouched beside her. He had been trying to wake her up.

“That’s what I would like to know too”

That voice wasn’t from Hop. She looked up and saw Leon coming close to them.

“Lee? How did you get here? You’re pants with directions!”

“That’s nice to hear from the little brother who had me worried sick!” Leon said while he was helping Blu to get up. She was still a little bit disoriented. “I’d been waiting ages for you two, and you never showed!” he really was worried.

“How long has it been, since we passed out?” Blue asked, it hasn't been that long since they got in here.

“Around an half an hour, probably” Leon acknowledged “When I noticed you were taking so long to come, I went up to your house to see if everything was ok, then I saw the gate to the Slumbering Weald open”

“Half and hour?! But we’ve been only here 30 minutes!” She looked at her phone to check the time, Leon was right. So they remained unconscious for more than an hour?

“Wait, where’s the Wooloo?” Hop asked “We were trying to rescue it!”

“You mean this Wooloo” Leon motioned to the sheep beside Charizard. “The little chap’s just fine. Though, by the time I found you, you were all unconscious on the ground”

“I’m sorry. I should have tried to stop Hop from coming here, but we couldn’t have stayed back and do nothing!” Blue pointed out.

“No. I was the one who insisted on coming! Blue even tried to convince me to go back but I refused. If someone is to blame that’s me!”

“Listen, this place can be dangerous, but it took courage to come in here, and honestly, I understand why you did” Leon started “Both of you did good!”

“Well at least no one got hurt.” Blue said “Though I’m concerned about that Pokémon that attacked us…”

“Right! I almost forgot about that mad Pokémon that appeared”

“Mad Pokémon? What are you talking about?” Leon asked.

“You see, while we were looking out for the Wooloo, this big Pokémon that looked like a wolf appeared” Blue explained.

“Not only that, when we tried attacking it, the attacks passed right through it. It was crazy!”

“Your moves passed through it?” Leon thought for a second “So, the fearsome Pokémon they say that lives on the Slumbering Weald…Are they actually illusions?”

_Illusions?_ So what they saw wasn’t real?

“Never mind all that. One day you may find out the truth when you get stronger, for now, let’s get out of this place.

* * *

During their way back home, Blue remained silent, Leon clearly noticed that something was bothering her so he asked if she was fine, Blue lied to him by saying she was still feeling a little bit dizzy but that she will be fine, he didn’t buy it completely but knew better than to push her to saying the truth, if she didn’t wanted to talk about it that was totally fine.

Once they were finally back, she looked at the sky and noticed that it was past noon already.

“Oh shoot! I never told mum where I was going!” if she was lucky, her mum would probably think she had been at Hop’s place all this time, still she should prepare herself for the worst. “You guys go ahead; I’ll meet you at the Lab” she said as she walked to her house.

Luckily her mother didn’t notice she’d been gone for more than an hour, so she decided not to mention what happened earlier.

“So, Leon gave you and Hop a Pokémon? That’s so nice of him!”

“He really is a great guy…” Blue didn’t notice that a blush creeped out on her cheeks, but her mum did.

“Well, looks someone has a crush on Hop’s brother?” Her mum teased

“ **MUM!** It’s not like that!” Blue was embarrassed, she literally just met the guy yesterday, there’s no way she had feelings for someone she just met.

“I’m just kidding. So, are you going to introduce me to your new friend?”

“Right. Marine come out!” Blue threw the Poke ball and the little Sobble came out “Mum, this is Marine, and he is my new partner”

“Well aren’t you a cutie” she started petting him and he really liked it.

“By the way, I’m leaving off to Wedgehurst to get a Pokedex” Blue commented.

“Oh, so you’re planning on taking the Gym Challenge?” Her mum asked.

“Maybe. First I need to convince Leon to endorse me and Hop”

“I’m so happy for you dear. Ever since your father passed away, I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to do it anymore” her mum said as she was looking at a picture of his dad that was hanging on the wall.

Her father died when she was ten, a few days later after that years gym challenge began, she remembered how she isolated herself and refused to go out, if she had to be honest she also thought she would never go on her own journey, she didn’t wanted to do amazing things knowing her dad would not be there to cheer on her and see all of her acomplishments. But now, that the world has granted a slight chance to fulfill her dream, she had to take it whether her father was here or not….at least that’s what he would have wanted her to do.

“I really miss him…” Blue softly said. Her mum walked to her side and placed her hand on her shoulder.

“Me too. But, as long as we keep him in our hearts, he’ll never be truly gone” her mother could sometimes be really silly, but she was also a woman that gave good advices and knew how to make her feel better. “Now, you should be heading off your way before it gets late” she hugged her daughter and wished her good luck.

“Thanks mom” Blue walked to the door “Bye!”

When she got to Route 1 Blue saw Hop standing in the way.

“I thought you’ll be at the Lab?”

“I wanted to wait for you. Now, last one to get on the Lab is a Slowpoke!” and he run away.

“Hey! Wait for me!” 

As long as she had Hop, she knew this was going to be a fun and great adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at writing battle scenes, but I tried my best!


	3. Guess dreams do come true

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue and Hop continue their mission of convincing Leon to endorse them for the Gym Challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry again the amount of dialogues, is just that there certain things that are better off written as dialogue than a very descriptive paragraph.

Since Hop was already way ahead off her, Blue decided to try and catch a Pokémon, she looked closely the area, but it was all full of Wooloos. Guess she would catch one.

It was an easy catch. Now, even though she wanted to put it a name like she did with Sobble, Blue thought it would be a better idea to save up the nicknames for the ones that would be officially on her team. Now that she was done, she kept walking off to Wedgehurst.

When she got there, she noticed that there was lots of people outside, she wondered why, but once she saw Leon’s Charizard, she got the answer to her question. Blue got near Charizard and patted his head and asked where his trainer was, the fire dragon pointed off to the lab with his claw, Blue thanked him and made her way to the building.

Leon was right in front of the door. Blue said hello to him.

“Blue, you’ve finally made it” 

“Well, I wanted to catch something first before coming here”

“Yeah, I can see that” Leon took a look a the second Pokeball that was hanging on her belt “You know, it took me a while to find the Lab the first time, I’m really hopeless with directions”

“You know, I’m starting to wonder how you completed the Gym Challenge in the first place” Blue jokingly said, earning a small laugh of the champion who just blushed at the comment.

“Well…it wasn’t easy, but I think I have to thank Sonia and Charizard, they were the ones that helped me out with that”

_Wait, what?_

“You know Sonia?” Blue asked him.

“Of course, we’ve been friends since we were kids!” Leon said.

“Funny, she never mentioned that in the long time we’ve known each other” Blue remarked to him.

“Oh. Anyways, why don’t we go in?”

“What about Hop?”

“Oh, he already got the Pokédex, by the time I got here he was heading off to train a little bit on route 1”

“I see…Well, then let’s get inside”

* * *

The lab looked as magnificent as always, even though Blue has been in the place before, she still gets amazed with the way it looks. The shelves full of books were one of her favorite parts.

“I’ve got to give it to Professor Magnolia. Everything in here looks fascinating…”

“I know, I honestly don’t know how they keep this place in top condition” then Blue felt something near her leg, when she looked down, she saw a Yamper wiggling its tail happily.

“Aw, I’m so happy to see you too” Blue kneeled to pet the little puppy, there was no way she could resist this adorable dog. She was so distracted that she didn’t noticed that Sonia was in the second floor.

“What is it today, Leon?” Sonia asked “Looking for info on another never-before-seen super strong Pokémon? I’d wish you’d stop with these outlandish requests” as she walked down the stairs, she took notice of Blue and greeted her “Blue! Oh my, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you here….”

“It’s ok, don´t worry about it” Blue stopped playing with Yamper and stood up “I´m happy to see you”

“I´m happy to see you too. It’s been a while since you last came here for a visit. So, what brings you here today?”

“I came here to get the Pokédex”

“Really? Well, I didn’t expect you to say that…” she said and then directed her view to Leon “And you’re here because…?”

“Oh! I only wanted to accompany Blue, that’s all”

“Ok…? I wasn’t expecting that either. Anyways, you said you wanted a Pokédex, right?” now she was talking to Blue.

“Yup, that’s what I need”

“Good. Could you hand me your Rotom-phone for a moment? I’m going to add it in your phone”

“Really? Sure!” Blue handed off her phone “By the way, why did you never told me you and Leon know each other?”

“Um, because you never asked about it?” Sonia answered while she was configuring the Pokédex in the phone.

Then there was an awkward silence that filled the room. Luckily it didn’t last long, as Leon was the one to break it.

“So…How do you to know each other?” Leon asked out of curiosity.

“Blue used to help me clean up the place and stuff like that”

“Really? Why?” he was now looking at Blue.

“Well, I mostly did it to earn some extra money, but eventually we started to know each other, and then I started visiting the place just to hang out with Sonia” Blue explained “We don’t have a big history”

“Yeah, I remember how we would just sit down and have a coffee while we talked about all kinds of stuff” Sonia added “And it’s done! Now you have the Pokédex. You should let my Gran know you received the Pokédex, this is gift from her after all!”

That was faster than what Blue thought, well, at least she didn’t have to wait that long.

“Thanks! And don’t worry I’ll sure let her know. Her house is down the road on route 2, right?” Blue said, “Then I’ll be off my way over there” She walked to the door, but then turned back to Leon “Leon, you coming?”

“Oh! Um…You go ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the professor's house” Leon said, and Blue left the place leaving Leon and Sonia alone.

* * *

Blue made a stop at Pokemon center to buy some potions and heal her team up before heading to the next route and catch up with Hop at Professor's Magnolia house. 

"Should I catch something on this route?" she wondered "It wouldn't be bad idea, maybe I could a get a Yamper or a Rookidee…" 

She started to wander on the patches of grass to see what sho could find, then she heard a bark on the distance, when she turned her head a Yamper was running to where she was standing. 

"Well hello there" Blue smiled and the puppy began running around her as if it were playing. "Looks like someone wants to play… or could it be that you want to come with me?" The Yamper only stared at her while wiggling its little tail. 

"What do you think? You wanna be my Pokémon?" Blue was holding her hand out in front of the Yamper.

"Yamp!" 

"I'll take that as a yes" and she took out a pokeball, she didn’t even had to fight the fella as it immediately presses the button of the ball with its nose and got into it.

"I'll put you a name later. Now let's keep going" Blue placed the Pokeball in her belt with the rest and resumed her trip.

Even though Blue only agreed to catch one Pokemon, for the sake of filling her POKEDEX she decided to do some more catches, it would also help on making her partners stronger.

* * *

“Blue! Took you long to get here mate” 

“I might have gotten distracted on my way here”

“Well, Lee’s already at the front door with the professor, so what are we waiting for?” Hop was started to walk toward the entrance, but Blue stopped him on his tracks by grabbing his shoulder.

"Hold on, first we need a plan" 

"A plan? What for?" Hop was curious, what did Blue meant by a plan?

"You want Leon to give you an endorsement don't you?" 

Hop nodded. 

Blue began thinking, then she had the answer Hop began walking toward the house but Blue stopped him.

“Wait. I have an idea of how to convince your brother to give us that endorsement. This is the plan….”

* * *

The two of them got closer to the front door and greeted Professor Magnolia, who was just talking with Leon before they got there. After that the Professor invited Blue and Hop to come in.

“Why, Hop dear. It seems Wooloo has made some new friends” she then turned her gaze to Blue “And Blue, you have grown so much since I last saw you. You’ve become a quite fine adult”

“Oh it hasn’t been THAT long since I last came here for a visit” Blue added “I hadn’t changed that much” Though it's true that she hadn't paid a visit to the professor in for some time.

“Changing the subject, I trust you received the Pokédex from Sonia. I’m sure you’ll complete it in no time!”

“You can count on that!” Hop said with confidence.

“By the way, how are you doing with your research about Dynamax?” Blue asked.

“Well, there’s still plenty of questions about the subject so I haven’t been able to unravel all of it’s secrets” Professor Magnolia added “I’d hoped that my granddaughter would take over my research but….”

Blue only looked at her, she already knew that Sonia had no interest in continuing her grandmother’s research, sometimes she wondered would ever do something different than being a mere assistant. The room suddenly fell completely silent.

“You know Blue, it takes a proper understanding of the thing if you plan to use Dynamaxing to its fullest!” Leon spoke up to break the silence that was already accumulating in the room.

“There you go again, Leon, always talking about Pokémon” the professor sighed “There are other things that are worth knowing about, too, you know. Like how many different types of tea there are!”

Blue let out a small giggle, but then stopped as he felt Hop nudging her side, he was motioning slightly with his head to professor, Blue didn’t got it at first what he was trying to say, but then it clicked on her mind what he meant. 

_Oh! Right, I forgot about the plan._

“Professor, can you do us a small favor, please?” Blue asked. The professor only looked at her.

“Help us convince Lee he should endorse us for the Gym challenge!” Hop added.

The professor looked at Leon, as she heard the two young trainers petition. “Oh Leon, why wouldn’t you endorse them?”

“Hop and Blue only just started as Pokémon trainers...There’s still loads they don’t know yet!” Leon explained, as Blue and Hop shared a few looks with each other, then Blue spoke up.

“Hey! In case you didn’t know me Hop have read many books about Pokemon battles and stuff! So we are not entirely new on the matter!” Blue pointed out to Leon, she was 18 for the love of Arceus, she surely would have done lots of research on the matter during the last 8 years. “And yesterday you saw us battle, and we did good!” Hop was trying hard not to laugh, the sight of an incredibly annoyed Blue was just precious.

Leon only stood there, shocked by girl’s reaction.

“Dearie, I thought your dream was to have everyone in the Galar region become strong trainers. Isn’t that right?” 

Everyone’s sight was directed to Leon.

“Well, yeah...you’re not wrong” He admitted “That goal is precisely the reason I gave them Pokémon, in fact.” no it seemed that was starting to change his mind , Blue and Hop’s plan was working. 

“Right, then. In that case….How about this? Let’s see if you two can show me such a brilliant battle that I’m left with no choice but to endorse you!” Leon proposed and Blue and Hop gladly agreed to that, if he was going to give them a chance to prove they’re worthy of an endorsement they had no reason to complain about it.

* * *

Before doing anything else, Leon made sure that Hop’s and Blue's Pokémon were on top notch, once their teams were all healed up everyone headed outside and took their respective positions so the battle could start.

“Alright Blue! Come at me with everything you have and let’s prove Lee we have what it takes to take on the Gym Challenge!” Hop said full of determination

“Let’s do it!” Blue said as she picked the Pokémon that she wanted to send first.

Hop sent out his Wooloo, while Blue opened up with Marine. Once again it took care of Wooloo and Scorbunny with a few water guns, the training definitely was starting to pay off. Now she only had to take down one more Pokémon and this battle would be over.

As his last Pokémon Hop sent out a Rookidee, so Blue switched up to her new Pokémon, Yamper. Despite being slower than the small bird, Yamper took every hit like a champ and once it used Nuzzle it paralyzed the Rookidee and got an opening to attack and ended the battle with a second Nuzzle

“Oof! Gutted that I Iost...But I’d expect nothing less from my rival!” he said as he took a hand to his head “And I even got my Pokeball throw perfect, too!”

“Well, it is necessary to experience both defeat and victory to learn and become stronger” Blue said “But you did a good job!” she called back Yamper to the Pokeball and thanked them with a low voice to her team.

Leon stepped closer to the two trainers.

“Well, after seeing a match like that one....Guess I have no other announced choice than to give you both and endorsement as a Champion!” Leon proclaimed, and he took out from his pocket a pair of letters with the League’s official seal on it. “Here you go! Your endorsement letters for the Gym Challenge”

Blue and Hop did not hesitated one moment more and accepted the letters. Happiness was written all over their faces.

“Yes! Thanks, Lee! I swear I’m going to win my way through the Gym challenge to reach you!” Hop beamed as he was looking at the letter that was now in his hands.

“Yeah, and I’ll promise I’ll work hard to become a great trainer!” Blue exclaimed with a lot of confidence.

Leon smiled at the enthusiasm that Blue and Hop had “You two might be still young, but it was a proper battle. And Hop, I was worried that about you being obsessed over things like how you throw your Pokeball out...but it seems you really have grown a bit, Little brother!”

Blue and Hop then agreed to train hard and aim to become the Champion, now officially they were rivals, and they would not go easy on each other, no sir, they were going to give their all in battle and show everyone in Galar what they’re made of. Then they noticed a shiny red object fall down from the sky, but it wasn’t only one, actually there were two.

“What is that…?” she said as the objects fell a few steps away from were they were standing. Hop got closer to have a better look of what was on the floor, and he was surprised. 

“Blue, this are Wishing Stars!” Hop pointed out “Since there’s two of them you should take one” and he handed off one of the wishing stars to Blue. She has read about them in one of the lab's books were they mentioned how they're crucial to use Dynamax, this is the first time she's seen one in its natural state. 

“You know, they say Wishing stars fall down for those who have a true wish in their heart.” Leon commented, the moment Hop heard that he wished to be the greatest trainer ever out loud.

“Hop, you know that you aren’t supposed to say it out loud for it to come true….” Blue pointed out, Hop groaned in disappointment.

“Now, Hop, don’t be silly. Those Wishing stars are one of the most precious resources we have here in the Galar region. But they won’t do a thing for you in that state, so give them to me now, and I’ll have you sorted out” Hop and Blue gave the Professor the wishing stars, she was right that they were of no use in that state, so it was better to leave the pieces in capable hands.

“Wow, first we got to battle against that mad Pokemon in the Slumbering Weald, and now this...It really feels like we’re getting caught up in the adventure of a lifetime!” 

“I know you’re excited, but you should save up your energy for tomorrow. We have a long journey up ahead to do from now on” Blue commented. 

“Seems I got back just in time” Sonia walked to where everyone was standing "Hey you lot, why not have some dinner. You must be hungry, right?”

The only answer she got was the noise that came from Hop, Leon and Blue’s stomachs they were so caught up with the battle and everything else that they forgot to have some lunch before heading out. With nothing more to said everyone went inside the house to get something to eat.

* * *

Sonia’s cooking skills were something worthy of recognition, when it’s about making delicious curry, she was the right person for the job. Is not that Blue doesn’t know how to cook, but the food she made wasn’t as delicious as Sonia’s so she limited herself to preparing the ingredients a left the cooking part to her.

Since it was already dark outside Leon, Hop and Blue spend the night in Magnolia’s house. Leon and Hop fell asleep quickly but Blue wasn’t that tired yet, so she decided to go outside to get some fresh air and hopefully, relax her enough to fall asleep. Blue tried her best to be as silent as possible so as not to wake anyone up.

It was a little bit cold outside,it was a bad idea to leave her jacket inside, but she wasn’t going inside just to get it and probably waking either Leon or Hop.

The sky was clear, the moon was shining so brightly and the sound of water flowing as silence reigned all over the place made everything so calm and peaceful.

As she was watching the starry night sky, her mind began thinking about what happened in the Slumbering Weald. But she brush those thoughts away, it was pointless to put some much thought into something that had almost no logical explanation. 

“I should probably go back inside, it’s starting to get colder out here” Blue thought to herself.

She looked one more time the sky and then got back inside so she could get some sleep and be full of energy.

Who knows? Maybe what Hop said about them getting caught in an adventure of a lifetime was true. Only time will tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if Sonia is OOC but at this point I think I’m writing everyone OOC.
> 
> That, or maybe I just interpreted the characters personalities differently...
> 
> Anyways, I rpoofread this chapter like 3 times so if I post it and find a typo or mistake I'm gonna flip the heck out.


	4. The adventure begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Off to Motostoke City!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bruh, this ended up 9 pages long, the fuck.

The following morning, Blue and Hop woke up with lots of energy.

“Good morning” “Good morning Professor Magnolia” Blue started to look and noticed Leon was nowhere to be found. “Where’s Leon?”

“He said he had to leave off to Motostoke” Sonia answered.

“We should be making our way there too to sign up for the Gym Challenge” Blue commented.

“Wait, before you leave, Leon told me you two saw a strange Pokemon in the Slumbering Weald, could you give me more details about it?”

“Um, well, it was surrounded by this really weird fog, and it looked like a big wolf with its body covered in red fur, while its tail and mane were blue colored” Hop described it the best he could, it’s not like they could see it clearly with all that dense fog.

“Wait, it didn’t have red fur. It’s body was a cyan color, and it had a two braids in a peach color, it’s tail was also that color” Blue disagreed, when she was done talking realization struck her, Hop’s description of the Pokémon didn’t matched hers at all.

Blue and Hop stared at each other for a moment. Did they saw two completely different Pokémon on the woods? How was that even possible?

“So you two saw different things...That’s kind of strange” Sonia was right, the whole ordeal was weird, but right now they’ve got more important things to think about.

“We really must go now….” Blue and Hop we’re starting to walk to the door.

“Hold on you two, aren’t you forgetting something?” The Professor took out two peculiar bands and handed them over to Blue and Hop “I fitted the wishing stars you found last night into these bands, now you should be able to use Dynamax whenever you are in a power spot”

“Thanks Professor!” Blue and Hop thanked her and put on their wrist the bands. “Well, we are leaving now!”

* * *

The two of them raced all the way back to the train station at Wedgehurst, and Hop, once again, beated her.

“You really are slow Blue” Hop mocked at Blue.

“Well, if you didn’t ran off without giving any warning, I would have surely beaten you!” Blue protested “Now let’s go, or we’re gonna miss the train”

“Not quite so fast, you two” Hop and Blue turned back and saw their mums.

“Mum? What are you doing here?” Blue and Hop asked in unison.

“Professor Magnolia was so kind to let us know you were setting off” Blue’s mum said calmly, which was surprising, considering that she was about to leave off to a distant place without giving her mum a small call before that.

“Oh, yeah, sorry for not telling you mum…” Blue said a little bit ashamed.

“Don’t worry about that you two... Hop, I brought you a little gift” Hop’s mum said as she handed over a camping gear to her son.

“It’s a camping kit!” Hop exclaimed “Thanks mum!”

“Don’t think I forgot about you, Blue” Blue’s mum said “Here, I hope you take good care of it”

Blue took a look at the camping gear and then spoke up “It’s dad’s old camping gear...Thank you, I’ll take good care of it”

_"The train heading off to Motostoke city, will be departing soon. All passengers, please start boarding the train."_

“Well, that’s our cue” Blue and Hop bid farewell to their family and boarded the train.

* * *

The trip was really peaceful, the views of the fields that surrounded Wedgehurst were magnificent, though there were nothing compared to the Wild Area, which was also another way to get to Motosoke, but it was easier to take the train than walking for hours, though what gives the area its charm, it’s the many different things one can do and that just fills up anyone’s sense of adventure.

Hop was talking during the whole trip, the boy was super excited for the Gym Challenge, Blue remained silent and only listened to everything he said, though her mind was somewhere else most of the time. After a while, the train finally stopped.

“Isn’t this the Wild Area? Why did we stopped here” Blue asked.

“Forgive the inconvenience, but the train is halted due to a flock of Wooloo on the tracks” Blue and Hop cocked their heads to one side, this had to be a joke, but then they noticed a bunch of Wooloos rolling near the train.

“Oh man...guess we have to walk all the way to Motostoke” Blue wasn’t complaining about the situation, but she wasn’t that happy either. The Wild Area is huge, so the walk to Motostoke was going to be a long one.

“Why you acting as if it were a bad thing Blue? This is brilliant!” Hop started “The Wild Area is massive, and there’s loads of Pokemon that we can catch here!”

“You’re right! It’s the perfect place to build up a team!” Blue agreed.

Both trainers were shocked with the view they had in front. It wasn’t the first time Blue has come here, she used to do some camping with her dad around here when she was a kid, yet the scenery always left her speechless. She turned her sight to Hop, his face was beaming with happiness and excitement, it made sense since he has never come to the Wild Area before.

“Hey there, you two” Sonia greeted the two trainers as she was waving a hand directed to them.

“Oh hello, if it isn’t Sonia” Hop said.

“What are you doing here?” Blue asked, surprised to see her in this place.

“My gran gave me a proper earful in her own way... _Those two trainers are setting out on a journey, but what are you doing with your life_?”

“Oof, that sounds harsh…” Blue said.

“No need to worry about that! Besides I’ve been curious about that Pokémon you two met at the forest, so I’d been thinking I should look into it, so the timing works out fine” Sonia started “If I discover something really huge, then maybe even Gran will admit I’ve got some talent!”

“Yikes...Being an adult has it’s own challenges, uh?” Hop mused as he turned his head to the sky.

“I said you don’t need to worry about it!” Sonia reassured them.“I’m glad to be back on the road. It’ll be fun to fish and camp, and rough it outside again”

“Well, I’m off to stick my head in as many of those red glowing dens as I can find and battle a bunch of Dynamax pokemon” Hop said and headed off his own way, he really was an impatient one.

“What about you Blue? Are you going off to battle some Dynamax pokemon too?”

“I think I’ll pass. Now, I want to catch a few pokemon to add on my team for the meantime” Blue commented.

“Okay, then have a small treat of me. It’s a Pokemon Box Link, with it you’ll be able to move pokemon from your boxes to your team and vice versa” Blue took the small artifact in her hands.

“Thanks, this will come in handy” Blue put the object inside her bag.

“Well, I’ll be heading off to Motostoke now. Don’t forget that you have to go too and sign up for the Gym Challenge” Then the two parted ways.

Blue had to check up the map on her phone to make sure she didn’t get herself lost, is not that she had bad orientation, but the weather in the Wild Area can go bonkers any second, you could be in a place where the Sun was shining brightly and next up in the middle of a sandstorm. She roamed through the patches of grass to see what Pokémon were looming in the area, with the current weather that was over the place, the only Pokémon that she encountered were Metapods and Vulpix, but she didn’t complained, it wasn’t a bad idea to have a fire and bug type in her team for the meantime. She also encountered lots of stuffuls and an Onix.

Even though she wanted to do some more Pokémon catching, she preferred to wait until her partners were stronger, she didn’t wanted to run the risk of facing off a higher leveled Pokémon and get everyone in her team knocked out. Blue also bought a few ingredient take could be used to make curry from some backpackers that were in the surroundings.

With nothing else left to do, it was time to keep going and get to Motostoke.

* * *

Even though Blue already came to Motostoke with her dad when she was little, the view of the city still amazed her. Since she knew Hop already went off to the stadium, she thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do a small tour around the city, she still had some extra time and could go and sign up before.

She checked out some clothes at the boutique, but she didn’t buy anything, there was nothing special that could caught her attention. After that she went on the hair salon to dye up her hair, she didn’t remember when was the last time she did it, so she wasn’t going to take any risk.

Now that she had nothing else to do, it was time to head off to the stadium. Then she heard someone call out her name. She turned around and saw that Leon was coming to her.

“Nice to see you again Leon”

“Same here. It looks that you were able to make your way here through the wild area”

“Let me guess, you got lost there for a while the first time, right?” Leon blushed at her comment.

“You’re not gonna stop teasing me about my sense of direction, huh?” Blue grinned as a response.

“By the way, I brought you something that’ll be useful for your pokemon” he took out a small blue pendant from his pocket and gave it to Blue.

“It’s a Mystic Water. That’s great, this will power up Marine’s water type moves!” Blue put the small pendant on her bag “I’ll give it to him after I sign up” And Blue resumed her walk to stadium, not before bidding a goodbye to Leon.

When Blue reached the stadium’s entrance, Hop was already there, seems he has been waiting for her so they could sign up together.

The Gym’s lobby was full of people, mostly trainer that where joining this year’s gym challenge. Blue and Hop looked carefully each one of them, it wasn’t a bad idea to look out the competition.

“Let’s get us signed up-” Blue was pushed away, by a boy with curly white hair that was wearing a pink trench coat, it wasn’t enough strong to make her fall, but surely she lost her balance.

“Seriously? What a piece of work…." Hop said annoyed at that guys attitude, was it that hard to say 'Excuse me, please let me pass'? "Are you okay?”

“Yeah...Seems we are gonna deal with guys like that” Blue said “Let’s get done with this”

“If you’re here to register for the Gym Challenge, I’ll need to see your endorsement”

“Here you go” Blue showed him the endorsement letter, the man behind the counter was shocked.

“Fancy that...This is the first time we’ve had a challenger endorsed by the Champion!”

“Well, make that two now, because I am as well!” Hop commented.

“What?! Two of you at once?! I wonder what’s come over Leon this year….” the man began checking the endorsements “You two must be something special.”

“You bet! I’m Leon’s little brother, in fact” Hop said it proudly.

“And, I’m just Hop’s friend right here” Blue felt a little bit silly for saying that. “Are you done already with the sign up”

“Y-yeah, just wait a second and….It’s done! You two have been successfully registered as Gym Challengers! Now choose a number for your uniform that will be displayed on the back of it and you’ll have to wear it for any official match”

Okay, Blue hadn’t thought about that detail, so she just said the first number that came into her mind at that moment.

“It will be 398” Blue replied.

“Mine is going to be 189”

The man took note of that, and reached for something from the counter.

“And here. You must wear this Challenge Band at all times to identify yourself as a Gym Challenger. The opening ceremony is to be held here tomorrow” the man added “All the trainers taking part have been booked a room at the Budew Drop Inn”

* * *

Blue and Hop nodded in agreement and went straight up to the hotel, during the whole walk Hop was rambling out of excitement, Blue was excited as well, but deep down she was more nervous than anything else.

“Hiyah! Looks like you both got yourselves registered”

“Of course we did! What are you doing at our hotel?” Blue asked.

“I’m researching the mysterious Pokemon that are said to be in the Slumbering Weald” Sonia responded “I reckon if I look into some of Galar’s legends, I might figure something out”

Blue and Hop were confused.

“Take a look at this statue, it’s of the hero who once saved the Galar region.” Sonia motioned to the statue in front of them.

“I think I’ve read about this in a book that we have back at home. The legend goes like this: _Long ago, a great blackstorm covered the Galar region. People called it the Darkest Day. The land was assaulted by gigantic Pokemon...but they were defeated by a single young hero bearing a sword and a shield_ “ Blue recalled the best she could, it's been a while since she read that book.

“That’s right. And this statue is meant to depict the hero of that legend.” Sonia stated “We still don’t understand what kind of sword and shield the hero actually had. And what this black storm is supposed to be is another mystery….”

 _“The Darkest day...I wonder what caused it in the first place”_ Blue thought to herself.

“Huh… I suppose that hero must’ve been as strong as Lee, then!” Hop expressed “Looks like you’re going to have your hands full with plenty of research, though, Sonia. Black storms and swords and shields and all...”

“Well, I think you’ll be alright, Sonia!”

“Thanks Blue! I’ll muddle through somehow- don’t you worry!”

“We should probably go and check in” Blue and Hop said goodbye to Sonia and headed to the Hotel’s counter. But it seemed that no one can check in, due to a group of people in weird costumes that were obstructing the way.

“Excuse me, could you please move aside? No one can check in because of you standing there” Blue politely requested.

“We, Team Yell, only came to cheer on one special Gym Challenger, if you get in our way, you’re in for a battle!”

Fine, if a battle is what it takes to get rid of them, a battle is what they’ll get!

“Then let’s have a battle! But let me warn you, it won’t be that easy to take me down!”

The whole battle showed no difficulty for Blue, she took down each down of her opponent’s Pokemon only with Marine, and all thanks to the Mystic water Leon gave her a while ago, that thing made all of his attacks stronger, she only swapped once during the whole battle to do some healing. Eventually Hop joined her, and the two took care of the last two Team Yell members that remained.

“I wasn’t expecting checking in would be such a big fuss!” Hop exclaimed.

“Me neither...But that’ll teach those buffoons a lesson”

“What are you lot doin’ here?” Blue and Hop turned around to see who was talking, they noticed how Team Yell began to act quite nervously. 

“Marnie?! N-nothing...We was just...” the whole group was a stuttering mess, guess they’re more bark than bite.

“I know you are all curious ‘bout the other Gym challengers, but you gotta show a bit of restraint.” the girl sighed. “Come on, you lot! Back home with you now!” they didn’t not hesitated for one second and sprant out of the place.

“You know these weirdos?” Blue asked.

“Sorry ‘about them! They’re just a bunch of my fans. Call themselves Team Yell and follow me around cherrin’ for me.”

“Don’t worry! Sometimes, fans can cross the line for the person they admire” Blue said.

“Well, it seems pretty impressive that you already have a set of fans to call your own!” Hop mused. The girl only nodded and then went her own way.

Now that it was possible for everyone to check in, they could get a good sleep, it has been a long way from the Wild Area’s station to the city, and Blue was really exhausted. She wished Hop a good night and parted ways to their rooms.

It wasn’t that fancy, but it had a window nice view of the city. Blue let her Pokemon out so they could stretch a little and admire the view. Later on, she took a nice shower to refresh herself, she was about to change into her pajamas until a thought crossed her mind.

“Maybe, I should try out my uniform. Just see how it fits me” 

So she grabbed her bag and took out the uniform, the shirt has the league’s logo on the front and on one of the sleeves, the number she picked was displayed at the back. She put on the shirt and shorts, and looked herself at the mirror, thankfully it fitted her perfectly and wasn’t too big, though she looked a little bit weird. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone knocking the door, who could it be at this hour?

When she opened the door she was surprised to see Leon.

“Hey there” He greeted.

“Hi...Um...not to be rude, but what are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see how you and Hop were doing. Though when I went to his room he was already asleep” 

“It’s been quite a long trip....It’s only natural that he’s exhausted” Blue explained.

“I see...Well, can I come in? It’s okay if you want me leave! I’m sure you’re tired as well and…”

“Oh no! It’s okay, you can pass” Blue motioned with her arm to the room as a sign that he could get in. It was true that she was tired, but it would be a while before she could actually fall asleep so, she didn’t mind to have some company for the meantime.

“The Gym Challenger uniform fits you good!” Leon complimented.

“Thanks, though the shirt feels kind of baggy….” Blue said as she grabbed the hem of the shirt.

“You’ll get used to it. So, you and Hop doin’ good?”

“Of course! Well, he had to fight some weird goons at the hotel’s lobby ‘cause they didn’t let anyone check in, but other than that, it’s been fun so far!”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Leon smiled “Blue, could you do me a favor?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“I want you to look after Hop for me. He’s still young and reckless, and I don’t want him to get in trouble”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that he’s fine, but you worry about him a lot. Hop’s not a little kid anymore, he can take care of himself, and I’m sure his Pokemon won’t let anything bad happen to him” Blue reassured him.

“You’re right…” Leon sighed and then spoke up again “Could you lend me your phone for a second? I’m giving you my number” Blue gladly handed over her phone. “If something happens to you or Hop, give me a call, okay?”

“Got it” Blue looked at the clock, it was getting late, and she had to rest for the opening ceremony. “It’s pretty late, I should probably go to sleep”

“Right! Sorry if I kept you awake. I’ll be showing myself out now” Leon was walking to the door, but then stopped on his tracks “Oh, I almost forgot!” He took out what it seemed a card from his pocket. “Here, have my League Card. Is my way of wishing you good luck on the Gym Challenge”

“Thank you, I’ll treasure it forever.” for some reason Blue felt some heat rise to her cheeks and her own heart beating fast, Leon really was such a nice guy Leon waved a goodbye to Blue and wished her a goodnight.

She changed back into her pajamas and got under the sheets of the bed that was super comfy, Marine cuddled beside her. This day surely was interesting. She couldn’t wait for her journey to officially start and see what kind of adventures await her in the near future.

Blue closed her eyes and let herself fall into a deep sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a new day, full of surprises and experiences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I think it is very clear by now that I love cheesy dialogue, writing the interactions between Blue and Leon is really fun.  
> The story from now on should flow on a little bit faster from this point.  
> (I'm praying, so that there are no mistakes in here, or else I'm gonna flip)
> 
> Oh, and there's not going to be new chapter next week, I'm gonna be busy studying for exams and stuff.


	5. We're off to Turffield!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gym challenge officially begins!

Waking up earlier than usual was starting to become a habit for Blue, it was 6:00 AM, so everyone else in the hotel was still sleeping. She decided to go out and get some fresh air and maybe even train a little bit her team, they had to be on top shape just in case someone wanted to battle them.

By the time Blue got back to the Hotel, Hop was already up, he’d been practicing his pokeball throw in the hotel’s lobby. She greeted him with a smile, apologizing for leaving without any notice. He responded saying it was fine and he knew she didn’t do it on purpose.

Then two headed to the stadium for the Opening Ceremony. Blue couldn’t still believe that this was really happening.

* * *

"The ceremony will shortly begin. Change to your uniforms and wait in the locker room" the man behind the counter said.

Okay Blue was used to being in a room full of people thanks to the reunions her family has occasionally, but this was insane. There were lots of trainers in the room, more than what she expected, thanks the heavens the room is big enough to fit in so many people. Still, the big number of challengers was really intimidating.

_"Don't worry, once the challenge officially begins, the number of trainers will be decreasing"_ Blue thought to calm herself. It is well known that not everyone who participates completes the whole thing, usually because they end up quitting at some point due to the high difficulty of some of the Gym leader battles.

"Can't believe this is actually happening" Blue said.

"You're not the only one mate" Hop commented "In any moment, we will be in front of thousands of people and the world shall know our names!" Blue only smiled at the enthusiasm that Hop was showing.

"Look, the show is about to begin" Blue said as she pointed toward the screen that was in one of the rooms walls.

Blue had seen this event so many times, but it still made her body fill of excitement.

_"Now let's see this year's Gym leaders" the announcer declared._

At this point Blue paid a close attention to each one of the Gym leaders, of course she has seen them before, anyone who has lived in Galar for their whole lives knows them. But each year the Gym leaders from Stow on Side and Circhester made a rotation, and this year wasn't the exception. This year, Bea and Gordie will be in charge of their respective Gyms.

"Aw, I was really looking forward on facing Melony" Blue said with disappointment.

"Why?" Hop asked out of curiosity.

"I heard that her Lapras is really strong, and I wanted to battle it. Guess I'll never get that chance"

"Hey look on the bright side, if you thing don't turn out well for you in the challenge, you can always try again the next year and then you'll have chance to battle her" that's what you always liked about Hop, his endless optimism and how he will always try to find the bright side of things, no matter how bad they might seem.

Blue kept watching the event, waiting ‘til the Chairman was done talking and the time for all the challengers to head out to the field.

“Well, it’s showtime! You ready?” Hop asked.

“Um...Sort of….” Blue sounded unsure “To be honest I’m super nervous….”

“Hey, everything will be fine! Just take a deep breath”

And so Blue make small breathing exercises, somehow that worked and calmed down her nerves a little bit

* * *

Watching the battlefield of a stadium on TV was one thing, but standing in one was something completely different. Thousands of people were filling the stadium, all of them screaming in excitement and support. To think that this is how things will be from now on in every battle against a gym leader made Blue shudder, not of fear but of nerves, everyone would be watching her, paying close attention to all of her movements, who knows if she’ll be able to battle properly in front of such a large crowd.

She looked around to distract herself from the big crowd, some of the challengers were just living the moment and waved at the public, others were just doing some small talk with the Gym leaders. At first she wanted to do the same thing, but she knew she would be unable to form a single word and just make a fool of herself in front of the strongest trainers in all of Galar. She kept looking around and spotted Hop having a nice chat with Milo.

_‘At least someone’s having fun’_

Hop noticed how she was looking his way and motioned his hand to tell her to come over, Blue denied the offer.

“So, how you’re doing?” Blue jumped out of the surprise and turned around, Leon was right behind her.

“Um, I’m fine….Well, it’s kind of overwhelming, I’m not used to this kind of stuff”

“Heh, don’t worry about it. The first time is always like that, but you’ll get used to it” Leon reassured her, Blue smiled.

“By the way, what happened to one of the Gym leaders? There only seven of them here”

“You mean Piers? He’s never been a fan of this big events” Leon explained “Don’t worry, he does this every year”

That surprised Blue, but she didn’t considered it a big deal, it’s not like the world was gonna end just because someone didn’t showed up to this big event.

Blue spent the rest of the ceremony talking with Leon, occasionally she had this feeling that someone was looking their way, and she wasn’t wrong. Sometimes some trainer would look at them and murmur something, it wasn’t weird at all, after all she was talking so casually with the champion, people would obviously be wondering the reason behind that, but she decided to ignore it.

The ceremony lasted what it felt like an eternity, she was definitely going to the Hotel and take a nap after this.

Once the Ceremony, Blue bid farewell to Leon, and headed to the Locker room to change back to her normal clothes.

* * *

“Man, that was amazing! Did you saw all the people that were looking at us, it was insane!” Hop exclaimed “There’s really no words for it, but...I can’t barely contain myself! My heart’s racing!” Blue only smiled, it really made her happy to see Hop in such a good mood.

“So, what are you going to do now?” Blue asked as she was putting on her jacket.

“I think I’m gonna get some potions and a couple of poke balls at the Pokémon center, then I’ll head up to Turrfield” At this point, the two have already fully changed to your usual clothes. “What about you?”

“Well, I wanted to take a nap back at the hotel, but I want to get to Turrfield as soon as possible, so I think I’m gonna get some supplies first and then head over there” Hop only hummed in response.

During their way back to the lobby, Hop was talking about the conversation he had with some of the Gym leaders and pointed out to Blue that she should have tried to talked to them, she only answered she just didn’t felt like doing that.

“Blue! Hop!” the two fixed their gaze to where the voice came from.

“Leon, what a surprise to see you. I thought you already left” Blue said.

“Well, there’s something I needed to give you two first. It’s a gift from the chairman, he hopes that it will be useful for you” He then handed them over something that Blue couldn't tell what it was at first sight, but once she was able to take abetter look at it, she was surprised.

“Awesome! Now we can use can call flying taxis” Blue exclaimed “Thank you, this will be really useful”

“No problem. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must leave now, there’s lots of things I have to do”

Blue and Hop said goodbye to Leon and headed to the Pokémon center. 

* * *

Blue only got a few potions and antidotes since she didn't had that much money right now, meanwhile Hop stacked himself with pokeballs and potions. Once they got what they needed, they went outside at the bridge that connected Motostoke with Route 3.

“Hey Blue, how about we have a quick battle before we enter route 3?”

“Another one? Seriously Hop you need to chill out a little bit” It's not li,ke she didn't wanted to battle, but since Hop was challenging her almost every five minutes, it was beginning to wear her out a little bit, that and she also was little bit tired from the ceremony.

“So, is that a no?” 

“I never said that” Blue grinned and grabbed Marine’s pokeball.

The battle didn’t lasted too long, as always, though Blue struggled just a little against Hop’s Wooloo, since her team was a little bit underleved but thanks Yamper, who paralyzed the Wooloo with a Nuzzle, they were able to defeat it.

“What?! I lost again?!” Hop called back his Pokémon “I just don’t understand how you do it without dropping a sweat”

“Guess I’m just really lucky” Blue called back Yamper to their ball

“By the way, have you named that Yamper yet?”

“Well after thinking about it for a while, I decided to name her Mocca”

“Mocca? Are you serious?” Hop questioned her choice of a name for the Pokemon.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” Blue knew that it was a weird name, but she liked the sound of it, and it somehow was really fitting for a Yamper.

“Oh, I was only making sure you weren’t joking that’s all” Hop shrugged.

* * *

The two went to heal their partners and then headed to route 3. As soon as they put a foot on the route, Hop didn’t wasted more time and started runnng through the route, while Blue decided to stick around a little bit longer to see what kind of Pokémon she could catch.

After walking around the area she encountered a rookidee, she really wanted to catch one back on route 2, but she had no luck, so now it was a perfect chance to get one. Blue got closer to the small bird carefully so it didn’t ran away, and quickly threw a pokeballs straight to it.

“Great, now I have a flying type on the team!” She picked up the poke all from the ground, “Mmm, what name should I put you?” Blue murmured “I got it! Ryan will be your name from now on, I hope you like it”

She kept walking through the route and tried to find another Pokémon, to her own surprise she found a sizzlipede, she did not think it twice and went on to catch it, Blue decided to name him Blaze. A few minutes later she encountered a Galarian Zigzagoon, at first she wondered if she should catch one as they’re very well known for being kind of aggressive, after thinking about it for a moment, she decided no to get one, but as soon as she started to walk away, the little fella started following her.

_‘A zigzagoon is following me? That’s weird….’_ Blue thought to herself and kneeled down in front of the pokemon.

“Hey there, I noticed you’ve been following me” she placed her hand carefully on the head of the creature, being careful that it didn’t attack her or something, she was surprised that it allowed her to pet its head ‘Mmm…it seems that it wants to join my team’

“Hey, do you want to be part of my team?” The small zigzagoon nodded. “Okay, here we go!” she threw the pokeball at the creature, which didn’t showed resistance to being catched.

“Nice! Your name shall be Bridgette” She said, happy to have a new member on the team.

Blue kept walking through the route, eventually she encountered a couple of trainers on the way, and of course she was not going to dismiss the opportunity to make her team stronger.

Thanks to that, Marine evolved into Drizzile and learned Water Pulse, thing’s were just going perfectly.

“Blue! Over here!” Sonia called out.

“Sonia, good to see you here”

“I say the same. By the way you really looked like an ace back there at the stadium!” Sonia complimented her.

“Really? Well, that’s good to know, I was a complete nervous mess on the inside” Blue joked.

“I can only imagine it” she giggled “Though you seemed extremely comfortable around Leon. I suggest you to be careful with that, you don’t want to give the people a wrong idea about you too”

“What do you mean with…?” It only took two seconds to understand what Sonia meant, the sudden realization made Blue blush “Sonia! For the love of Arceus, we’re only friends!”

“I know, I know! I was just messing with you” Sonia added “Now, moving onto another subject, where is Hop?”

“He already went off to Turffield” Blue responded “I have to admit he walk really fast”

“He can’t sit still at all, huh? Guess he really wants to catch up to his brother” she acknowledged “I suppose you’re planning on getting there as soon as possible, am I right?”

“That’s the plan” Blue declared. “You wanna come with me? I really wouldn’t mind the company”

“I think I’ll pass, I have to do some things first” she explained “But I’ll catch up with you on Turffield”

Blue said goodbye to Sonia and kept going. In order to get to Turffield, one had to go through the Galar mine no.1, thankfully Marine still had some strength left, so he could perfectly take care of the rock type pokemon.

* * *

She had to admit it was little bit dark in there, but at least she could see where she was walking.

‘Should I benefit of the fact that there are lot’s of Rock type pokemon here and train Marine a little bit more?’ Blue wondered ‘I think it would be better to wait ‘til I earned the first Gym badge, I don’t want him to get way too strong till the point where he doesn’t listen to me’

The mine, despite looking like a labyrinth, wasn’t that hard to navigate, though Blue had to do some more battling to make her way to the exit.

Eventually she finally found the exit, but right in front of it there was someone standing.

_‘Wait a minute….Isn’t that the boy of the other day back the stadium?’_ She walked a little bit closer to have a look. The boy turned around, he was wearing a pink coat and his hair was white and curly, it was indeed the same person she encountered at the stadium.

“But look what we have here… it is the trainer endorsed by the champion himself. What was your name again?” he said.

“Blue. My name is Blue” She responded dryly.

“What a joke. You’re aware that the chairman is more important than the Champion, right?” he mocked “I was chosen by the chairman himself, so that makes me more amazing than you!”

_‘This kid was really endorsed by the chairman, geez, I wonder how that happened in the first place'_ Blue thought.

“I suppose I should prove beyond doubt just how pathetic you are and how strong I am” Now he was definitely starting to get on her nerves.

“Fine, if a battle is what you want, I’ll give you one” Blue grabbed Bridgette’s pokeball, time to put this kid in his place.

The boy opened up with a Solosis, sending Bridgette out was the best decision.Blue ordered her to use Bite, just with that single attack the Solosis was knocked out. Next up, was a Gothita.

_‘Guess, his team is full of Psychic types…well this just makes this easier’_

Bridgette used Bite one more time, the Gothita was immediately defeated.

“Oh dear, what have I been doing? Well, whatever. Let’s just get this over” He was really calm right now, which was weird, considering Blue was about to beat him. The boy sent out his last pokemon which was a Hatenna. Bridgette should have no issue with it.

“Okay Bridgetter, let finish this! Use Bite!” she commanded, Bridgette throw herself to the Hatenna.

“Hatenna use Disarming voice” the young trainer ordered. The attack landed on Bridgette before she could do some damage, worse of all it had done a good number on her.

“Bridgette, you okay?” The pokemon only nodded to her, indicating that she was fine. ‘A fairy type move, I should have known better’ Blue started to think what to do, she just couldn’t let Bridgette battle that thing. So, she called her back and sent out Mocca, if she could paralyze, then she would be able to attack it without any problem.

Blue ordered Mocca to use Nuzzle. The Hatenna was paralyzed just as she wanted. With a few Tackles, Mocca defeated it.

“Well, that was unexpected. I suppose you’re more able than I thought” He said “Naturally, I shall remember your battle style now. I’m sure I’ll defeat you easily when we face each other in an official match. Now, I won’t waste anymore time with you” And with that he just left.

“Man what a jerk. At least we showed him what we’re made of” Mocca barked in agreement “Well, let’s keep going, Turffield is just right around the corner”

With that being said, Blue walked outside of the cave.

Things were starting to get interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, I finished this chapter!  
> Im sorry if it took this long for an update, I thought things would came down after March 15th, buut then this whole quarantine happened and classes were moved to online format, which seemed to make the teachers give us more homework than usual.  
> Sadly, I don't if I'll be able to post another chapter next week, but I promise that by May 14th thing will calm down (right now I'm on the last two weeks of school and close to finishing highschool), so the updates should get back to the one chapter each week after that.
> 
> And as I always say, if there are any typos I'm gonna flip.
> 
> EDIT: For the moment I've decide to abandon this project.
> 
> EDIT: I got writer's block for this specific fic so...yeah sadly it's gonna be on indefinite hiatus....

**Author's Note:**

> And we're done with the first chapter, I really had fun writing this, and I hope you're liking the story.  
> I don't know when the next part is going to be ready, so have patience! I work slow, but only that way I do things right. (It took me a week to finish this)
> 
> Also, here are the ages of the characters
> 
> Blue: 18 yrs (though she's close to turning 19)
> 
> Leon: 21 yrs
> 
> Hop: 15 yrs


End file.
